Jameson

Taillon

Canada’s ace is not off to a good start ahead of the World Baseball Classic. With two more homers allowed today, he’s sporting a 19.50 ERA this spring, having given up 13 runs and six homers in six innings. His velocity is fine, and he obviously has a lot of fine-tuning to do with his expansive arsenal. There probably still isn’t any reason for concern yet.

Taillon has gotten roughed up both times out so far, leaving him 0-2 with a 17.18 ERA. Still, his velocity is fine, and he wasn’t hit particularly hard today. It’s nothing to be concerned about at the moment.

Taillon is going to pitch for Team Canada in the WBC, but it didn’t appear today that he was making any special preparations to be ready for the tournament, as his velocity was down about two mph from last year. That probably suits the Cubs just fine; they don’t need him peaking in mid-March.

Taillon gave up a run in the first on a sac fly, but he should have been out of the inning if not for a gaffe in the infield that allowed a pop up to drop. The right-hander allowed another in the fourth on a single by Jake Bauers. Taillon walked one and struck out three, and likely will start a game in the NLCS if the Cubs can complete the comeback.

Taillon draws the starting assignment with Chicago needing a victory on Wednesday evening at Wrigley Field to keep their season alive after dropping the first two games of the best-of-five series. The 33-year-old veteran right-hander was excellent down the home stretch of the regular season and tossed four scoreless innings last Thursday in a Wild Card Series start against the Padres. This will be one of the bigger starts of his career so far.

The 33-year-old right-hander racked up four strikeouts on the day and didn’t allow a base on balls. Taillon allowed a two-out single to Ryan O’Hearn in the second inning and a two-out double to Jackson Merrill in the fourth and that was it. He was lifted for Caleb Thielbar in the fifth inning though as the Padres had three lefties due up despite only throwing 60 pitches (43 strikes) over four stellar frames. His next test will come against the Brewers in the National League Division Series.

Taillon draws the starting assignment for Thursday’s winner-take-all showdown at Wrigley Field against former Cubs ace Yu Darvish, who gets the ball for San Diego. The 33-year-old righty posted an encouraging 1.54 ERA across four September starts and will be making just his third career postseason appearance. Meanwhile, Darvish will be making his 14th career postseason start since 2012.

Kittredge will face the top of the Padres’ lineup before handing things over to lefty Shota Imanaga. Chicago took the opening contest of the best-of-three series at Wrigley Field when Matthew Boyd, Daniel Palencia, Drew Pomeranz, Kittredge and Brad Keller combined to hold San Diego to just one run on four hits. It’ll likely be an all-hands situation if the Cubs jump out to an early lead with Jameson Taillon the likely option to pitch a decisive Game 3 showdown.

Cubs manager Craig Counsell made it official that Boyd will take the ball for Tuesday’s series opener at Wrigley Field. It’ll likely be some combination of Shota Imanaga and Jameson Taillon to close out the three-game series with star rookie Cade Horton out with a rib injury until at least the late stages of a potential Division Series matchup.

The lone run came on a Nolan Arenado fly to left-center that was only a home run in Wrigley. Taillon finished with eight strikeouts, his highest total since he fanned 10 against the Mets in June 2024. The Cade Horton injury will surely get Taillon into the Cubs’ Wild Card rotation alongside Matthew Boyd and Shota Imanaga. He’ll take an 11-7 record and a 3.68 ERA into the series against the Padres.